I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication and, more specifically, to techniques for updating information that may help support media independent handover (MIH).
II. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various telecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, and broadcasts. Typical wireless communication systems may employ multiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power). Examples of such multiple-access technologies include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency divisional multiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems.
These multiple access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. An example of an emerging telecommunication standard is LTE. LTE is a set of enhancements to the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) mobile standard promulgated by Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). It is designed to better support mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards using OFDMA on the downlink (DL), SC-FDMA on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology. However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues to increase, there exists a need for further improvements in LTE technology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to other multi-access technologies and the telecommunication standards that employ these technologies.
A wireless communication network may include a number of base stations that can support communication for a number of user equipments (UEs). A UE may communicate with a base station via the downlink and uplink. The downlink (or forward link) refers to the communication link from the base station to the UE, and the uplink (or reverse link) refers to the communication link from the UE to the base station.
Some UEs have multiple radios allowing them to communicate with multiple radio access technologies (RATs). With the proliferation of multi-radio devices and multiple available networks, one challenge is how to reduce power consumption caused by unnecessarily scanning and detecting networks.
Some services, such as Media Independent Handover (MIH), defined by IEEE 802.21, have addressed this problem by providing information about network links available at a particular geographic location. MIH Services offers mobile devices a seamless, standardized approach to handover between diverse networks, which promises to enhance user experience.
Unfortunately, much of the information used to accomplish MIH is static and programmed into a device. Without up-to-date information regarding available network links, a device capable of performing MIH may still need to perform network scans, resulting in unnecessary power consumption.